1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of recording audio data on a disk and an apparatus for adjusting the position of a breakpoint of audio data, which is used for cuing and the like of the recorded data.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has so far been known a method used for continuously recording an audio signal on a recording medium, such as a tape, in which a fall of the level from a predetermined value of the audio signal (for example, a silent interval between pieces of music) is detected and, thereby, a breakpoint of the audio signal such as a breakpoint between pieces of music is detected and a marker is recorded on the recording medium at the breakpoint, and then the marker is detected at the time of playback of the tape for setting up for example the start point or end point of a piece of music for use in the playback.
In the above described case, since the position of the marker automatically recorded as described above is set up after a fall of the level has been detected, the marker tends to be set up somewhat delayed from the actual breakpoint. Hence, sometimes such a thing occurs that the head of a piece of music is not played back. Further, how long a time is preferred to take from the cuing position to the start of the playback of the audio signal is dependent on the taste of the user. Therefore, there is considered a recording and playback apparatus having a function to adjust the position of breakpoint so that the marker position can be manually adjusted after the recording was made.
The present applicant previously proposed an apparatus for recording an audio signal, after compressing data of the audio signal, on a disk smaller in diameter than a compact disk and then playing back the audio signal (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,224,087, 5,243,588, and others). In the proposed system, absolute address data is previously recorded on the disk and the disk is provided thereon with an area called a user TOC (Table Of Contents). Hence, it is considered to record in the user TOC the absolute address of the position of a breakpoint of the audio data, such as a breakpoint between two pieces of music, as the positional information of the breakpoint. In such case, the adjustment of the breakpoint position can be achieved by changing the address information of the position of a breakpoint recorded in the user TOC.
The above described function to adjust the position of a breakpoint of the audio data is effective when the audio data is recorded temporally continuously at the position of breakpoint. When for example a stop key or a pause key is pressed, the temporal continuity between the data preceding the breakpoint and that subsequent to the breakpoint is broken off. Then, such changing of the breakpoint position as to shift the position of the breakpoint to the recorded position of the data preceding the breakpoint or subsequent to the breakpoint becomes meaningless and, in some case, it causes a difficulty.